THE last survivor of the Gresford mining disaster. in which 266 miners died, has spoken of how he hoped against all odds his father would return alive.

Albert Rowlands, 89, from Borras, Wrexham was a 14-year-old boy working in the colliery’s lamp room when the night shift, including his father, went underground on September 21, 1934.

Albert’s father, John, a Royal Welch Fusilier who had won the Military Medal aged 17, operated a coal-cutting machine at the face. Many men that Friday were ‘doubling up’ to get time off to watch the Wrexham v Tranmere Rovers match the following afternoon.

Albert said: “Us boys in the lamp room had to be there as soon as the men started arriving for work. We were cycling to work with my dad and he told us to get on or we’d be late so we went on ahead. He picked up his lamp at the other window so I never saw him again. Two others of his friends were with us and they were lost as well. They’re all still down there.”

Albert said: “People have said there was a huge explosion and the ground shook but that’s not true. All that happened was that a telephone rang and the fireman said: ‘They’re all coming up,’ and the miners were appearing and they seemed to be panicked.

“We were getting the lamps in and handing out the tallies and then it all went quiet.”

Only six miners climbed out through the choking smoke and dust, away from the raging underground fires that consumed their workmates.

Albert said: “They were coming back up and just shaking their heads and then they brought the bodies up.

“They only found 10 and they came up covered in blankets.

“I saw them. But by Sunday they had given up.

“I was always hoping to see my dad. You could always tell him even when they all looked alike, covered in coal dust, because he always had a big grin and lovely white teeth.

“But he never came back and his tally was left there hanging on its hook.”

The likely cause was an explosion caused by a build-up of gas, chiefly methane, ignited, possibly by a spark from a metal tool.

Teddy Andrews, one of the six men to escape the flames, recalled: "One fellow said: 'Wait until somebody comes for us.' But nobody was coming for us at all. It was the last time we saw them."